A comprehensive audit conducted by the county after becoming suspicious of Commissioner Paul Johnson’s expense reimbursement has revealed alleged widespread improprieties that could have cost county taxpayers thousands over the past several years.

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A copy of the audit, comprised of three four-inch binders stuffed with documentation, was obtained by The Mount Airy News and close scrutiny reveals Johnson may have received $9,167.78 since 2011 for what County Attorney Ed Woltz called “inconsistent” reimbursement requests.

Johnson is reportedly the subject of a State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) probe into the alleged financial misconduct as a result of the in-house audit.

The issue arose after county staff began scrutinizing Johnson’s expense reimbursement requests, according to Woltz.

“The SBI became involved because staff, including myself, became suspicious of some requests,” he said. “The deeper we dug it became more of an issue, so we moved forward with an audit of the entire board and all department heads. They were all clean except for one elected official.”

The audit revealed 151 trips that were either allegedly paid by outside agencies, were for meetings Johnson allegedly did not attend, were for meetings that didn’t take place or where Johnson allegedly didn’t drive his own vehicle. In total, Johnson submitted 302 reimbursement requests during the period.

In a report on the methodology of the audit submitted to the SBI, Woltz wrote that “violations discovered included receiving reimbursable expenses from both an outside agency and the county for the same trip, claiming attendance at meetings where the individual did not attend or the meeting never occurred, or claiming a reimbursable expense for mileage on a trip that was taken but the individual did not drive their vehicle…”

The following red flags were discovered, according to the audit results:

• Approximately 62 trips were reimbursed by both an outside agency and the county, an activity Woltz said is commonly referred to as “double dipping.”

• More than a dozen trips were submitted for meetings that were held but Johnson allegedly did not attend.

• Seventy-two trips were submitted and reimbursed for meetings that allegedly did not occur. “For instance, Commissioner Johnson served on the Piedmont Triad Partnership Board of Directors in 2011,” Woltz wrote in a summary of the findings of the audit. “He submitted trips for 12 meetings in 2011, but only two were held, one in March and one in June, and (Johnson) did not attend either one. In some instances it appears the committee documented does not even exist.”

• Four trips were submitted and reimbursed by the county where Johnson attended a meeting but allegedly did not drive his personal vehicle.

Late in September, following a closed session discussion of the investigation, Johnson was stripped of his position as vice chair of the county board and removed from all committee assignments. Johnson did not attend the meeting.

Woltz said that while the county’s travel policy allows reimbursement for county-related travel, double-dipping is still wrong.

“I think being compensated for expenses by definition means once,” he said. “It’s not a reimbursement if someone else has already paid the price. If you’re being compensated once, you’re even. If you’re being compensated twice, that’s income.”

The initial investigation into the alleged financial improprieties revealed $8,299.93 in allegedly-fraudulent reimbursement claims, Woltz said, but after being asked by state investigators to look further, they revealed an additional 11 incidents totaling $867.85 in suspicious payments.

County officials believe there may be an additional $2,532.60 in alleged fraudulent payments over the three-year period, but these 13 payments cannot be verified.

For example, Johnson was allegedly in two places at the same time, reportedly attending a Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation (PART) meeting in Greensboro while also claiming to be attending a legislative conference in Raleigh on the same day.

Johnson received $67.80 in expense reimbursement for the Greensboro meeting and $169.50 in reimbursement for attending the Raleigh conference.

Further scrutiny revealed a van was rented for the trip to Raleigh. Minutes from the Greensboro meeting confirmed Johnson allegedly did not attend, but he was reimbursed for attending by both the county and the outside agency.

Contacted by telephone Tuesday afternoon, Johnson was adamant he has done nothing wrong.

“The people who are reading these reports don’t know what they’re reading and no one has ever asked me,” he said. “I’m getting tired of playing this on the front page of the paper.

“When this is said and done, and I have others in other counties who want to come forward, the people who conducted this so-called investigation didn’t have the guts or decency to call me and ask me my side,” Johnson added.

“When this is said and done, Surry County might just be mine, and maybe The Mount Airy News, to be honest with you.

“Rubber is getting ready to meet the road and when it does it ain’t going to be pretty.”